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Formal Night D16 (blurry lol)

Finding Harmony on Harmony??? HM 3/11/2023 – 3/18/2023 This is Us – A Little Bit CRAZY, A Little Bit LOUD, A Whole Lot of LOVE! 10 people, one cabin, crazy cousins, “set in their ways” older parents, plus a Genie…Will we find Harmony? Nobody knows? Not even us! This sailing as been a long time coming. I am beyond excited, and a little bit sad. Originally, we had booked this sailing for December 2020 to celebrate my Mom’s 70th birthday. We lost that sailing, and we were most fortunate to be able to reschedule it to now. However, as much as we tried to retain our original group, my other sister and her family could not make it. That leaves 10 of us, instead of 14. I am sure that our Genie is breathing a sigh of relief lol. This is our 3rd time on Harmony, but for my parents and sister’s family, it’s their first. It is by no means anyone’s first cruise though. My parents have cruised more than any of us have, but never in suites. They are pretty stubborn inside cabin cruisers, well my Dad is anyway. This cruise is another way that we are trying to thank my parents for everything they have done for us. We last cruised as an extended family in December 2017 on the Disney Fantasy. The kids were all a lot younger then and I am sure this experience will be a whole lot different.

Ending tonight with a bit of drama for @Ampurp85 and @asquared17 This is a screenshot from our FB roll call group.

Ah to have parents who are independently wealthy... And ah to see the look on faces of the wrinkled pinnacles when this kid walks in the lounge with his pin on.

Thought I would give my thoughts on our first cruise experience. As we have never cruised before, the ship really didn't matter to me, but the ports did. We choose this itinerary out of San Juan due to the ports. We flew in a day before the cruise. Day 1 - Embarkation Day. We arrived around 10:30 to meet up with family. Our time was scheduled for 12noon. Everything went smoothly. We decided to use the porters for our luggage. We quickly headed to Windjammer to grab something to eat. It wasn't very crowded when we were there. After lunch we toured the ship to get our bearings and to figure out where everything is. We were able to get into our rooms around 3pm and our luggage came shortly after. At first we didn't purchase the drink package because we thought that since we were going to be at ports everyday, we would drink more off the ship, but while on the ship, we were having a few beavies and then decided to buy the drink package. lol. It was buy 1 at $72.00 per day and the second one half price. In my opinion based on how much we drink, we appreciated the drink package. This sale price was only for 1 day. Looking back at my account, we drank a lot! LOL and no, buying the drink package did not prompt us to drink more! . We also got 2 suvenlour cups to use as well. As it was casual night, we ate in the Main Dining Room. Our dinner time was set for 7:15 each night. Muster Drill - easy peasy. Watched the video on the app and went down to our station and had the attendant scan our phone. That was GREAT...I hope they don't do away with it. We decided on a balcony room, which I'm sure glad we did. For myself, I need to see some daylight! We were on the 6th floor, right above the Promenade, in the middle close by the elevator and stairs. This was an AWESOME location being so close to the stairs and elevator. I thought noise would be a factor, but it wasn't. The only complaint that I had was that the bed was very hard; too hard for me so sleeping was an issue. Couple of days we slept with the balcony door open and some days I actually slept on the balcony on the chairs. I don't sleep at the best of times, so having a balcony was great. Day 2 - St. Thomas. It was cloudy and raining. I was planning on doing Skyride to Paradise Point and then do the walking trail at Magens Bay and walk down to the beach, but best laid plans didn't work out. The ship docked at Crown Bay so we were not walking distance to Skyride. Because of the rain, we quickly decided to jump on a tour bus. This bus took us around the island and then we stopped at Mountain Top and had their famous banana daiquiris and did some shopping there. The view is awesome from Mountain Top where you can see Magens Bay. Day 3 - St. Croix. We took a taxi over to Rainbow Beach. The taxi was $15.00 per person! When we got to Rainbow Beach the cost of 1 umbrella and 2 beach chairs were $70.00 and then $15.00 each for extra chairs. After laying on the beach and drinking, we decided to walk back to the pier and do a little more shopping. Day 4 - St. Maarten. Since we have been there before, we didn't do any tours. We walked the board walk, and did some shopping. Ate lunch at the Blue Bitch Bar, listened to some live music and just enjoyed the day. We came back to the ship and took advantage of the empty ship and had a nice nap on the deck! Day 4 - St. Lucia. We decided to do a private tour with Real St. Lucia Tours. It was called an Island Expo Tour. Not really what I was expecting based on the itinerary. The driver we had was good, but was really promoting his own tours....he was called in as the original driver had to have laser eye surgery. We drove through Castries, Anes La Raye, saw the Government House, stopped in Soufriere, went to a waterfall and then did the Volcano, Sulphur Springs, and Black Water Pool....that was awesome! On our way back we had a great lunch at a beautiful spot overlooking the Piton Mountains. Day 5 - Barbados. We headed over to Carlisle Beach and stayed there for the day. Ordered buckets of beer and rum punch and had the Flying Fish Sandwich which was awesome! Day 6 - St. Kitts. This was my favourite island. We took a cab to South Friars Bay and hung out at a place called Shipwreck Beach Bar and Grill. It was awesome! You didn't have pay for any chairs! A bucket of 6 beers, plus 1 extra beer and rum punch was only $20.00 and the food was amazing. There are monkey's on the property which you can feed. It was quite, lots of room on the reach. This was mentioned to us by a few people on the ship, and we were glad that we went there. Day 7 - on our last day, we decided not to do luggage assist as we grabbed a taxi and headed to our hotel in Old San Juan as we stayed for 2 more nights. Everything went smoothly. However, waiting for the elevator did take forever! LOL Each morning at 6:30 we would head down to the Promenade and get coffee. My favourite was the white chocolate latte. We would grab our coffees and head up to the walking track and just walked around enjoying the sites and watching the sun rise. Overall, we had a GREAT time being our first cruise. Now let's talk about the Ship. The ship is older. I understand that it was refurbished, but I don't recall when. I liked the smaller, intimate feeling of the ship and it never seemed crowded. We ate at the MDR for breakfast and dinner and only had lunch at the windjammer on our first day and then on another day. We preferred the MDR. Loved how at the Windjammer they make you wash your hands. At least for the most part I saw people complying! Royal Carribean App - was good. However when texting, I would prefer that it buzzes or something as you always need to go into the app to see if someone texted you. Cruise Compass -I hear they are moving away from paper copies and you just have to scan the bar code, but we did get paper copies, which I will be scanning and submitting on the Cruise Compass Board. I did buy the internet package while on the ship. Not that I was on social media, I just prefer to always have contact with family back home in case of emergencies. I never had an issue with the internet package on the ship. Day 1 was Welcome Aboard. Day 2 was French Night and it was the first formal night. Day 3 was Italian Night. Day 4 was Caribbean Night. Day 5 was Mexican Night. Day 6 was Royal Night and this was the second formal night and the complimentary lobster if you wanted. Day 7 was Welcome to Bon Voyage. Breakfast in the MDR was good. They always had a good selection. My favourite was the fresh squeezed OJ and Power Wrap. Dinner in the MDR was good too. I always found that there was something to choose from. Favourites were shrimp cocktail, escargot, Carne Asada, French onion soup, and of course, lobster! Desserts - always something good! Location of our room. We were in 6320; balcony and it was great. Basically steps away from the elevator and stairs. Noise was never a factor which I was concerned with being just above the Promenade. I'm a light sleeper so anything can wake me up. After dinner we always did a show; ice skating show, comedians, singing, etc. All were good. After our excursions, we always hung out at the Sky Beach Bar. Our Bartenders Ashish and Ashquan were amazing! Try the chocolate martini! Had one everyday! This is why we returned; because of Ashish and Ashquan. Best bartenders ever! Couple of things I was happy I brought: Chair clips for our towels on beach days. Metal hooks for the room. We used these a lot to hang stuff off of. I felt that we had lots of space in our room. I also took a sponge and soaked it in soap; let it dry and cut it up. I used that a few times to clean clothes and such. I know that there are lots of videos wth recommendations on what to bring and what you need....however, these were my 2 essentials and I didn't feel like I needed anything else. No shoe racks, no clothing baskets, etc. Did I pack too much....of course. Here are my thoughts. Formal night. Since there are 2 and they are not back to back....I would have been ok wearing the same outfit. Bathing suit, I only needed 2. I brought 2 pairs of jean shorts, but ended up wearing skorts. Of course t-shirts and tank tops. 1 pair of beach sandals, 1 pair of sandals for dinner and Sketchers for walking around. My husband could have gotten away with 2 pairs of pants, 2 pairs of shorts, 2 swin trunks and just a couple of resort shirts. He brought golf shirts for the MDR but ended up wearing resort shirts and pants. We did use laundry service 1/2 way thorough the cruise just for underwear and t-shirts. Service was awesome. Kevin our stewardship made sure we had everything we needed. MDR - our hosts Rogelio and Krismart were great. I wish they would enforce the dress code a little more; some came in wearing beach shorts (men), flip flops, etc. My hubby wore a nice pair of golf pants and resort shirts each night. The only time he wore a nice pair of shorts was on the first day and the last day. And men, please remove your baseball cap/hat or cowboy hat when eating in the MDR. Just be a little more formal than usual! The only specialty restaurant we did was Izumi and it was awesome! I had the Poke Bowl and my hubby had Sashimi. It was awesome and I would highly recommend it! We did not feel the need to try out any other specialty restaurants we we were quite content in the MDR. As for other bars, we only hung out at the Sky Pool Bar. After dinner did a show and then went to bed! Never experienced the night life after the shows. We were exhausted from being in the sun all day; plus I was always up around 3am, so for me it was long days! All in all it was a great vacation and we will definitely be cruising again!

Ok, I am having a hard time keeping this blog “live” with my family here with me. Backtracking to this afternoon. We met Marla for the Bridge Tour at 2:15pm. This is again arranged by the Genie for Star Class guests. Marla told us they did 3 groups today. Our group had her guests and some of Raj’s guests. About 20 people in total. We met the Genies at the forward elevator lobby on Deck 12. From there, security met us, used a wand to scan us, and escorted the group to the bridge. The tour was about 30 mins in length. It starts with an explanation of some of the operations on the bridge. You are allowed some time at the end to take photos and also ask questions. I was saying to Marla that it is nice to see these tours come back. Both the galley, and the bridge tour. D16 doesn’t know what she wants to do after high school yet. Maybe she should be like Captain Kate and Hubby and I can sail with her. That would be a nice retirement lol I think that my Dad enjoyed this tour the most.

Pre-dinner snack Not sure how I am going to eat my filet tonight.

Ok…so let me be the one to extinguish this false alarm fire since I’m the one that started it. I heard back from the OA Concierge and she acknowledged that there IS still an open bar from 11-11 and that you can still get beer, wine, soda and water there during those hours. Also, still a Continental breakfast….so I will turn off the alarm that I pulled… In my defense, however, I will re-direct your attention back to the extremely poorly worded letter that I got yesterday which said NONE of this. One day I will learn to verify these kinds of rumors before acting. Nah…I never will ! Sorry everybody !

Who’s Going? Let me introduce you to the @Lovetocruise2002 extended family! · Mom & Dad – my parents · Sis – my sister · BIL – brother-in-law · N11 – Nephew (11 years old) · N9 – Niece (9 years old) · Hubby & I · The teenagers – D14 and D16 Flight Delta from DTW-FLL. HM leaves Miami on Saturday, and I have to work until Friday afternoon, we had no option but to book the last flight out of DTW to FLL on Friday night. I was not willing to fly in the day of, so again, we booked through Air2Sea, and we are praying and hoping for smooth travels. My parents and sister are flying out earlier on Friday, but they are also headed to FLL. My Dad does not want to meet us at the port, he would rather us all stay at the same hotel and head to the port together. Pre-Cruise Stay Not glamourous, but totally functional. We are all staying at the Holiday Inn Express on 17th Street in Fort Lauderdale. We don’t get into Florida until almost midnight, so we need something close to the airport. It does not make sense to spend a lot on accommodations that we will barely use. Seeing that we are staying there, the rest of the family is as well. The plan is to meet up at breakfast…well that’s the plan, not sure if my sister will stick to that plan lol We priced out different ride options to the port. My parents are not the Uber/Lyft type and we wanted to stay as group. After looking at several places, we decided to book a private van with QLS Transportation. They are scheduled to pick us up at the hotel at 9:30 am Saturday morning. So far, pre-cruise communication with them has been good. Itinerary 11 MAR MIAMI, FLORIDA 12 MAR CRUISING 13 MAR CRUISING 14 MAR PHILIPSBURG, ST. MAARTEN 15 MAR CHARLOTTE AMALIE, ST. THOMAS 16 MAR CRUISING 17 MAR PERFECT DAY COCOCAY, BAHAMAS 18 MAR MIAMI, FLORIDA Cabin Only one cabin holds all of us… Our plan is to put my parents on one end, in one of the master bedrooms. My sister and BIL will take the master on the other end. Hubby will finally get his wish to sail an inside cabin again, I am trying to psych myself up for the telephone booth shower, and all 4 freeloaders (err…I mean the darling children), will take the other inside room without the ensuite bathroom. Pre-Cruise thoughts HM will always be a special ship to us. It marks our first sailing where we ventured into suites (Sky Class) in 2017, and our first sailing where we dived into “the point of no return” (Star Class) in 2019. Now we return for another first, which is the Villa, a suite that I have been curious about for a very long time. Really trying hard to cherish the memories on this one. It has not escaped any of us that moments like these are few and far between, and most precious. Not only are my parents getting older, but so are the kids. This spring break sailing is our second last one with D16. Without a doubt, I will miss Deck 17…. Marla is our Genie on this one. Once again, in the spirit of a live blog, please do not hesitate to ask any questions. I will do my best to find out whatever I can for you. When responding to a post with a series of pictures, please do not include the pictures in your reply. It just makes for easier scrolling. Lastly, I will try to post videos and stories on Instagram. You can follow me @lovetocruise2002

I think the photograph needs no explanation!

I reeeeallly wasn’t going to blog this cruise. Port days every day make it hard to keep up, plus a lot of folks don’t seem interested in the smaller ships. Also, the week before the cruise I was in Rome for work, so my “getting to port” routing went Rome, Boston, DC, literally 12 hours on the ground just to scoop up new clothes (and MisterZ), Newark, Barbados. Sheesh! The things we do for vacation! But I kept thinking stuff like: 1) this is a really unique cabin, so I should give it a review 2) this is one of the first few weeks of the new MDR menus, so I should give them a review 3) lots of less-visited ports on this itinerary, so I should give them a review So it turns out I’m blogging. At least a little. Ha! Itinerary: depart Barbados Scarborough, Tobago Port of Spain, Trinidad St. George’s, Grenada Kingstown, St. Vincent Roseau, Dominica Castries, St. Lucia return to Barbados This won’t be super live, especially because we’re already on Day 3, but I’ll see what I can do!

It was my lucky night tonight! I found myself with two Genies on my way to dinner. This is Marla and Raj. Both awesome! Dinner was at 150 CP tonight. It was probably one of the best 150 CP meals I have eaten. Our waiter was very personable and attentive. The quality of the food was excellent. Between all of us, we tried all the things that 150 is known for: Braised short rib, Scallops, Lamb, Halibut, Lobster Thermidor, Beef Tenderloin for 2 (cut table side), and of course the fried cheesecake. Not a single complaint from anyone! After dinner the freeloaders went back to the room for “Nintendo Night”. Marla caught wind of this and sent popcorn to the room for them. The adults headed to adult comedy. Unfortunately, it was not the best. Pretty dry this time around. Tomorrow is another sea day as we make our way to St. Maarten. Zero plans tomorrow. Goodnight all!

The Villa Balcony I was just commenting to my family how this additional space really disperses the crowd if you have a lot of people in this room. We have 10 in here but it doesn’t feel like it at all.

We cruised twice last year on Royal after not cruising for many many years. We recently booked a cruise out of New Orleans for May of next year. Unfortunately Royal is limited on New Orleans departure and not offering when we can go. We booked on another cruise line. I went to an unnamed message board to ask a question and received nothing other than rude or smart ass comments. I miss this message board where I have always received polite, informative responses to my questions. I just want everyone to know how much I appreciate how helpful everyone here has been to me, even when I asked stupid questions.

Most eligible bachelor... in Adventure Ocean.

Here is how I like to add some spice to a lazy sea day: Go down to the pool and take a random chair hog’s towel clips, crappy book, and grimy flip flops and switch it with another random chair hog on the opposite side of the pool. Leaving the towels cause they are all the same. I’ve found you just need to shuffle an arbitrary 5-6 of them and it takes less than two minutes to do. Oh! You see an odd number of reserved chairs like three? Make sure you do it to the one in the middle! Then I like to grab a big cappuccino and go up to the Viking Crown. The Viking Crown offers the perfect vantage point for watching the unsuspecting chair hogs as I giggle like a school girl.

35 Days............ I didn't think I was going to cruising so soon but lots of changes and developments. I was hoping that eventually, just maybe a casino comp would come my way and I might be able to meet some of the blog members. I kept getting nothing but $100 off offers and I was like I won't be at sea until hurricane season. I had originally only one cruise schedule for this year with my family in Oct on Allure. But at least I/we had a bunch of land-based vacations on the docket. All but one has been scrapped. Lots of cost increases with minimal offerings. I was scheduled to go to Vegas Easter Sunday, but everyone who was going cancelled. One of the vintages lost her niece in February, that she raised since a baby, and then had issues with a tenant; she is scheduled for court on April 10th. Two of the other people just got new contracts and no longer have the vacation time. Then the owner of the RV we wanted to rent tried to pull a fast one and almost double the rental cost. I was like ........shakes fist at universe...........you don't want me to live my best life in 2023. On the day this all happened, I checked my Prime offers and couldn't believe I had a free offer. I actually have not had one since last year around April. The offer was for mostly Alaskan sailings starting in May, but I saw a sweet 4N on Freedom that worked with my schedule and jumped on it. The rep said they only had two rooms left and I took a midship interior. As it happened, I booked this sailing right when check-in opened and was able to snag an 11am, which was the first check-in time. I also should note that before I called I had to do a bunch of research..........while actually working. I started a new schedule in February. It is a bit of a mess. I am primarily remote, with the exceptions of 2 days a month at a hybrid office for meetings but I work Saturday to Wednesday now. I needed to check flights and see what was feasible, thankfully April's office hours were the Tues after Easter, so I could get my regular work done on the ship. I decided to try a bunch of different things on this sailing that I wouldn't normally do. First, I was supposed to be D+ after my Grandeur sailing in Jan. But my brother joined me, so I was short 4 points. It did burn me a little, I wanted to start my Oct family sailing with all those sweet D+ perks........even though nobody else will have any. That being said I will make D+ after this cruise as I am sailing solo. Rare for me, given my experience on Grandeur in the MDR with the new menu, I have decided not to get any dining packages. I vacillated, hard. Compounded by the fact that I have 8pm traditional dining, which means I will be sat with strangers each night. I have also decided against any sort of drink package. I always get the soda package but it's $11.80/day with grats and I can't justify almost $50 in soda for 4 days when I will mostly be in the casino. Plus, I have yet to use my 4 diamond drinks to the fullest. Lastly, I will not be purchasing internet ahead of time, I will use my free day and then my 30% off prime for the remainder of the cruise. It comes out way cheaper as now its 25% off with the "sale." I also had purchased a Premier Pass for this cruise and received the $100 OBC for the confusion. So the plan is to use that at Playmakers, JR and possibly room service. I will update more .........Also yaaaaaaaaaaay for the Premier Pass fiasco OBC.

Backtracking to this morning. QLS Transportation picked us up at 9:30am. They were on time and it was a good experience. On the way to the port. Check in was super efficient. Fastest one ever. Maybe because we got there around 10:20am or maybe because HM was not dealing with disembarking others today. Not sure but we were greeted at the star class podium, bags were tagged super fast, zero wait to go through security and passport checks. Marla met us as we were wrapping up passport checks and off we went to get on board. Since not everyone in our group has sailed HM, Marla took a few minutes to explain where things are before we left the promenade.

This might be an unpopular opinion. I think it is probably about time to retire the Bionic Bar. Super neat novelty the first time you see it, but I think it gets my drinks right about 50% of the time when it is working, and it's a waste of space most of the time. They usually have at least 1-2 crew members there to make sure the thing doesn't mess up when it is open as well. Might as well just turn it back into the Champagne Bar or something.

After skating, kids headed off for another Nintendo Night. Hubby, Sis, BIL are watching Black Adam (one of the in room movie options. My parents went to the Headliner show (a vocalist this sailing). And me, I am totally nodding off while blogging this and waiting for pics to upload. Headed to bed. Not sure if it’s cause I have been up way earlier than usual when cruising, or because I left Jamie’s with 4 drinks in (those Bellinis are so good!) but I am super tired. Good night all!

Travel day update: My parents and Sis/BIL/N11/N9 have made it to DTW. They texted about an hour ago and everything looks ok at the moment. My sister said that the gates and runways look clear. There are a total of 6 Delta direct flights from DTW-FLL today. The first two (7am and 10:30am) have departed without issue. My parents/sis are on 3rd flight and we are on the last one out tonight. Still crossing those fingers and praying for the best!

okay friends, last post! PROS: the staff on symphony was among the best i have ever encountered. honestly the last time we had this great of an experience with the crew was on serenade in 2018, and that was mainly our MDR staff — whereas this was really every single crew member we encountered. we’ve never had BAD crew members, but we understand that everyone is overworked and overtired in this industry. our expectations were appropriately low, and our empathy was high, for this reason. post-covid, the only other comparison we had was our last minute sailing on odyssey in december — that had its own issues, and while the staff was totally fine, they just weren’t the rockstars that were on symphony. legit EVERY SINGLE crew member — AMAZING. i know i keep mentioning it in this blog, but it bears repeating and OFTEN. we are looking to sail her again, just for this reason!! the ship is still very shiny and new (rough seas and creaky cabin 11232 not withstanding ) while oasis has my heart for both sentimental and practical reasons (being the only el loco fresh that serves breakfast, portside barbecue, etc), i am hard pressed not to name symphony as our new top contender. vintages became our bar of choice and we would go every night to grab champagne with diamond vouchers. it’s nice to have a ritual and be recognized by the bartenders (who learn your favorites) while you’re aboard. despite the bad weather in roatan, i felt our itinerary was balanced/great — when waiting in the boarding area at the airport for our return flight to newark, we heard a woman talking about how she had been on Norwegian (breakaway or bliss, i can’t remember) and they had to skip both costa maya — for weather (????) and also cozumel, because they were told the ports were full. i’ve never been more grateful that we arrived in time to make port in each stop. our captain (captain angel) was really nice and funny! i loved the captain we had on odyssey (he always made a point to greet the guests AND crew, and we heard from our server in chops that he was very concerned and kept them all safe when on dead sailings during peak covid) but captain angel was very animated and jovial when on the PA. again, the staff aboard symphony was just really really wonderful, and i don’t think it’s any coincidence, given how nice captain angel was (at least from the interactions we had on the PA, anyway!) CONS: i would NEVER stay in our initial cabin ever again. and i would caution anyone looking to book 11232 on symphony as there was a cacophony of endless cabin creaks and movement (location undefined) all night long. while the external noise (neighbors, etc) was outside of our control, the endless cabin movement and noise kept us awake all night. there was simply no winning. by contrast, when we moved to our new cabin (10636), it was noticeably BLESSEDLY silent. no creaking or movement detected at all. getting an elevator for self assist on disembarking was a fiasco. while we are not novices to the disembarkation experience, or the elevator shenanigans, we had a real time of it and eventually had to go UP to go down. we waited patiently around 7:05 for almost 20 minutes — with latecomers cutting in front of us left and right — before we finally went up from deck 10 to 17 and back down again, ultimately getting to deck 5 around 7:27am. (and even then, we had to block people from trying to cram in when we were clearly full/pushing the weight limits) the lack of sleep for the first three days HIGHLY cut into our overall vacation and general well-being. i usually get up like clockwork around 6am or just before and get a few miles in on the walking track before kicking off the day. as you may have gathered from this novel length blog, my mind is a busy place and i usually count on that time to process and decompress. there was no way i could do that on this trip — i was just way too tired to function. and i missed that time immensely. not sure if this is a real con, but i’ll add it into the list, anyway — we never ONCE departed on time. it was kind of insane; we were always at least a half hour or more behind — and it was totally wild to watch all the other ships in port leave before us (even the ones who had arrived after us). the only time we weren’t super late was our departure from PDCC, and i think that was only because the island itself was able to shut down ahead of time and force people to return to the ship on time. FINAL OBSERVATIONS: thought our trip started on a really low point with the death in my family, and the lack of sleep for the first few days, it had SUCH a drastic turning around for the better that it ultimately saved our vacation. i am grateful to the crew for working so tirelessly to help us, and their empathy, as it went a long way while i was already feeling pretty emotionally and mentally raw (between the family grief and lack of sleep). it would have been enough with all the concern they gave us, and honestly, i was so wiped from it all that i didn’t have it in me to think of requesting any kind of compensation for the first few nights — but on our last night, there was an envelope with a letter from guest services. they were giving us 10% of our total cruise fare towards a next cruise! given that this was the most we’d spent on a fare before, it will be a nice bit of credit to put towards our next sailing!! meeting @WAAAYTOOO and dan were definitely among the top highlights of our trip! we instantly felt like we were among family, and have adopted them as our extended family haha. it felt like we had somehow known them forever! they gave us a crash course in casino life (J and i have never stepped foot in one) and explained the ins and outs. it was always a happy time when they would find us during our uno-card playing times in the evening as the guitarist played in central park, outside of the park cafe and jamie’s. if we hadn’t gotten so caught up in talking, maybe we would have actually PLAYED a game or two of uno with them!! our old post-dinner ritual (pre-covid) was to sit at cafe promenade with a cup of tea and people watch. while that was fun, it was soooooo much nicer to be sitting outside with a beautiful breeze and live music. much more relaxing and calm. they have changed the tuna fish recipe slightly in park cafe but i didn’t mind it (as it became one of my mainstays during the cruise). the first day, there was barely a thin layer on the thick focaccia bread, but every day thereafter, it was a great and tasty bite!! (though we do miss the bag of chips you could get to go with your sandwich in former days) we never did make it for hairspray, which i was kind of bummed about, as i had wanted to see it. i think the night of our reservations was the night we’d switched cabins, and we were in NO condition to be going to a show as we nearly passed out from exhaustion — if we go on symphony again, i’d happily try to make reservations (and keep them!) next time. things i LOVED and would bring again in a heartbeat from amazon: (no affiliate links here or anything, i'm just a grateful shopper who picked up some tips from fellow cruisers here on the boards and felt like sharing the love to any who would need it!) liquid IV - would start my day off with a 16 oz water and one of these and they combated the heat, sodium and drinking without any real heavy lifting on my party. i would NEVER travel without these again. https://www.amazon.com/Liquid-I-V-Multiplier-Electrolyte-Supplement/dp/B07HCNM7KQ/ref=sr_1_6?crid=RMRQIL7S4UF5&keywords=liquid+iv&qid=1677002479&sprefix=liquid+iv%2Caps%2C99&sr=8-6 sand free towel - https://www.amazon.com/ECCOSOPHY-Microfiber-Beach-Towel-Lightweight/dp/B08DR26LB6/ref=sr_1_4?crid=25CK9E27FD7AX&keywords=eccosophy+towel&qid=1677002500&s=home-garden&sprefix=eccosophy+towel%2Cgarden%2C83&sr=1-4 acrylic magnetic cups - these were great to keep makeup brushes, pens, whatever in and they snapped right onto the wall. i didn’t think i’d like using these as much as i did, but will not go away without them. https://www.amazon.com/Organizer-Whiteboard-Refrigerator-Classroom-Accessories/dp/B0BKGF1195/ref=sr_1_5?keywords=2+pack+magnetic+pencil+holder+acrylic&qid=1677002545&sr=8-5 air mattress - sleeping on this means i can pretty much sleep ANYWHERE now. it’s the perfect size for the mattress onboard and if you can ask your stateroom attendant to put it BENEATH the bedding, it will minimize the noise when you roll over, etc. also something else i won’t travel without. https://www.amazon.com/PowerLix-Sleeping-Pad-Orange-Black/dp/B08BYNXYX8/ref=sr_1_4?crid=Y5DPS89MYCJW&keywords=powerlix%2Bpad&qid=1677002685&s=sporting-goods&sprefix=powerlix%2Bpad%2Csporting%2C95&sr=1-4&th=1) ice packs - hardly a new item, but these were lightweight and small enough to pack a punch but not overly weigh down your bag or things for the day. https://www.amazon.com/Arctic-Flex-Instant-Cold-Packs/dp/B081S8QJLG/ref=sr_1_10?crid=2KRFZF17YMNQF&keywords=arctic+flex+packs&qid=1677002451&sprefix=arctic+flex+packs%2Caps%2C109&sr=8-10 thank you all so much for being willing to read through my novel length observations and take the post-blog journey with me!! it has been so much fun to share and i hope it made you laugh at least once i didn't know if i could do it live and was afraid of starting a blog and having it fizzle out, so this was a great way for me to stretch my blog-legs and perhaps i will consider doing it again for our upcoming sailings!

Back to being home Genie now. Laundry is done, the Costco run has been made, and need to think of something to eat for dinner. Ending this off for now with a few pictures that D14 took. She thought it would go well with this blog. Harmony is a great ship still. It's well kept and in great shape. Thank you all for following, it's fun to be able to share. Until next time... D14 Somewhere out at sea.... From the beach in St. Maarten Docked in St. Thomas next to little Vision of the Seas Thrill Waterpark, Perfect Day CocoCay Just take me back....

She was able to reserve all seats for us, at all shows, both reservations ones and non-reservation ones. We never went to Love and Marriage or those types of shows so I don’t know if she would have been able to do that. I think that my Dad thoroughly enjoyed himself this week. Moving forward, we gave him our blessing to use some of our inheritance to splurge for him and my Mom on future cruises. If anyone deserves it, it’s the two of them. He simply laughed. So who knows what he will do? Lol

My two other loves…

Dinner tonight was at Jamie’s. We have dined here quite a few times but for the other 6, it was another first. Because of this, our waiter decided to bring out just about everything in larger portions and we shared most of it “family style”. Needless to say, we were completely stuffed. 4 of my family had Lamb Chops. They all thought it was better at Chops. And yes, @asquared17 that is Truffle pasta. It’s “Truffle Tagliatelle”. IMO, it’s better than CK Truffle pasta.

Dinner brought us to Chops tonight. My Dad, who has often proclaimed that eating is the highlight of his cruises, declared Chops as his best meal so far. I always love Chops because of their mushroom soup and lobster.

The Villa on Harmony First impressions…this room much larger than I expected based on videos and pictures. There is plenty of space for all 10 of us. Lots of storage. We are not even using all of the drawers and the hall closet is empty. The outdoor space is huge. Entrance and Main Hallway Main Living Space Master on the hot tub side Inside without the ensuite bath. This room is very small. The freeloaders are complaining. Bathroom in the hallway (not attached to any room). Inside room with the ensuite. This room is a bit more spacious. Second master on the side with the wet bar.

Parents and Sis/BIL/N11/N9 have left the gate! Yay. That is relief. That’s at least 6 out of 10. Now for the other 4 Pic of my Dad and his grandkids waiting to board the plane earlier. Think that might be my Mom off to the left? If it is, she is already in cruise lounging mode lol Sis (I think?)

Day 2 Shore Excursion - Scarborough, Tobago We chose “Windward Coast & Little Tobago” as our excursion this day. It was 5 hours, departed at 10:30am, and was listed as moderate activity level. It was a standard driving tour for the first bit (about an hour and 15 minutes) in a 25 passenger bus. Lots of nice coastal views, passing through lots of small villages. Next was a glass bottom boat ride over to a wildlife sanctuary and nesting site for seabirds. We got the boat at a resort located at the closest point to Little Tobago from regular Tobago. The short ride (15 minutes) was fairly smooth and we could see clearly down to the reefs below. There was a hike on the sanctuary island, with clearly marked trails and a naturalist to answer questions (about 45 minutes). Then back in the glass bottom boat and returning to our bus. On the drive back we stopped at Fort King George for a quick photo. This was not listed on the tour, but was added because we were a bit ahead of schedule (no traffic). Honestly the fort was underwhelming. I will say, DO NOT choose this trip if you are prone to motion sickness! The road is very, very twisty! This was a rather rigorous “moderate activity” tour. The hike on the little island was steep and pretty hot, and getting in and out of the boat was a little tense. Also, there was no food or snack (even though it was over lunchtime) so plan accordingly. All in all, I was happy with the tour, though. A few photos: House supposedly built by Ian Fleming: Scruffy Banana Finch: Red-Footed Boobie, white tail morph: Red-Billed Tropic Bird, tail feathers missing due to harassment by Frigate Birds: Caribbean Mockingbird:

We also got our plate of stale cookies ! LOL

We sailed away on Harmony of the Seas today. It is our first cruise since December 2019 (Allure of the Seas). So far, I have enjoyed the check in and muster drill. It was nice to watch the video before we boarded and then check in at our station. We were on our vacation after that. We were upgraded to a junior suite, so we still get the twice a day service. I am interested to see the changes since pre-COVID. The new dinner options will be interesting to experience. Anyway, very excited to be back on board. I’ve missed it terribly!

My wife and I are very early risers. We like to get coffee and go sit in the Solarium to watch the sun rise. We will sit there for a few hours in the early mornings, reading, relaxing, and chatting with each other. When we were on Anthem at the beginning of February, we watched people get there early (5-530 am), put towels on loungers that were in “prime” spots (by the windows), then leave. We wouldn’t see them again, even after 3+ hours. That is the behavior of “chair hogs”.

If I have to make the towel animals myself I am going to end up with a bunch of snakes!

Our Genie Marla….where do I begin? I have heard many wonderful things through the years about Marla. It was such a blessing to be able to not just meet her, but sail with her, and get to know her. The rumours are true, Marla is wonderful. She is such a happy and genuine person, full of energy and laughter, who clearly has a passion for what she does. It did not take her very long to read the different personalities in our group. She was great with the kids, and I will treasure some of our chats. She definitely read our survey as there were things she surprised us with that she would not have known otherwise. We are going to miss Marla dearly. Hoping to see her again in the near future

Dinner Night 7 brought us to Izumi Hibachi. This was a hard one to arrange for a group of 10. We told Marla we wanted to squeeze together. Hibachi tables usually only seat 8. That was fine but we pretty much had to stick with the time that Marla grabbed for us. That was at 7:15pm tonight. We did not have to book it first pre-cruise. Like the other specialty restaurants, we have done this one before but the rest of my family has not. Hibachi is always fun! Lots of laughs! D14 finally caught the egg thrown at her this time (IYKYK).

Day 7 - PDCC

Kids ducked out of dinner early and found the Stowaway Piano Player, except he wasn’t “stowed away” tonight. D14: She said she took the pic for me cause she knew I would want it for the blog

Day 4 - St. Maarten Good morning

After Chops, we made our way to the Royal Theatre for Grease. We have seen this show several times before. Unfortunately, Hubby and I both agreed that this is probably the weakest cast we have seen. Videos uploaded to IG. Awfully slow!

PTL!! It’s Monday and I am not at work! Lol

So a bit of a funny story, once again starring Hubby dearest... A few nights ago, during our weekly "Family Dinner Night", that's one night a week with all 14 of us at my Mom & Dad's house, my sister and I were discussing how next Saturday would work with Hubby needing to take some photos for the blog before the freeloaders tear into it. We decided that we would have Marla take us to the Suite Lounge first upon boarding and have Hubby head to the room to take some quick photos, then we will head down there when he is done. My sister jokingly asked me if Hubby would know how to get back and forth and he chimed in with, "It's just around the corner from the SL, of course I know the way." Poor guy thought we were on Deck 17 still.

Ending our cruise in CocoCay is not what I love. I would rather this have been the first day or better yet, Day 6. Either way, we are making the best of it. We arrived at CocoCay around 8:45am and were cleared to get off the ship around 9:30am. Marla came to pick us up because today we actually rented a cabana. I use the term “we” loosely. Hubby found out about a week ago because D14 spilled the beans over dinner. Those of you who follow my blogs know that Hubby is quite opposed to spending money on a cabana. However, it made a bit more sense this time. Originally, my sister, her family, Hubby, D16, and D14 booked Waterpark tickets. They were not cheap. $113pp over Black Friday. My parents were just going to wander around and I was planning to stay on the ship. When I factored in the cost of including my parents and myself (if we were to have purchased tickets) and the cost of the cabana (which includes 6 tickets), it was only about $300 more for the cabana. So for $300 more we can now all go together, and have a home base, that made it worthwhile to me, and I think that Hubby could see reason with that.

My love If you have followed my blogs, you know that I adore Effy jewelry. There is actually a manager (his name is Ash) that we met years ago in Cozumel, and he sold us one of my first Effy pieces. Anyway, long story short, Ash takes great care of us, and we have run into him at different Effy locations, on different sailings ever since that first time years ago. Each time Hubby and I wander into an Effy store, we wonder if, and hope, that we will see Ash. When we do see Ash, we take that as a sign Pardon the crazy hair here but I really wanted to post this. Ash is really amazing!

Always

but the RUSH we all got when we collectively thought we’d landed the DEAL OF A LIFETIME maybe it’s silly, but i’m kind of glad we were all in it together

Our usual plan of attack is to see the Aqua theatre show on Night 1. That way, if it gets cancelled, you have multiple times to try to see it again. Great show as always.

Fine dining at DTW

Day 3 Shore Excursion - Port of Spain, Trinidad For today we chose the Caroni Bird Sanctuary tour. Three hours and 30 minutes, departing at 9:00am, moderate activity. This tour started again in a little 25 passenger bus. Our driver was personable and kept up a nice tour guide chatter the whole way. We drove about 20 minutes to the Caroni Bird Sanctuary, where we got in a wide, flat-bottomed swamp boat. The engine was small and quiet, which meant we could hear the naturalist well. We spent the next two and a half hours puttering around the swamp, learning about the ecology and watching for birds, particularly Scarlet Ibis. The guide was knowledgeable and easy to understand. The only slightly challenging thing on this tour was getting in and out of the boat from the rather rustic dock. The staff was very good with helping the one mobility challenged lady in our group. 20 minutes back to the ship after, as planned, but the whole trip was definitely on island time. We were about 30 minutes late getting back. This was a great excursion! Some photos: The swamp boats: Red Mangrove roots (stretching down to the water from the branches): Black Mangrove roots (growing up from the ground): The flamingos are recent immigrants. They started showing up in 2014, decided it was nice, moved in and brought some friends. There are now about 300 permanent residents and seem to be starting a breeding colony: So graceful in flight Flamingo and Blue Heron: Blue Heron: If the crab yesterday freaked you out, I present a boa sleeping in a branch right on the waterline. No telephoto needed! We did see Scarlet Ibis, but they were tough to photograph. Turns out they rest on one leg like flamingos: Osprey:

Well she got the escorted departure at least.